


We're Going Where the Sun Shines Brightly

by Elisif



Category: The Shape of Water (2017)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-30 02:04:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13940223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisif/pseuds/Elisif
Summary: He’s spent his whole life painting perfect families, thousands of them probably, and even if he knows better than anyone they were all fake, it’s nice to be reminded that sometimes a family isn’t a father in a suit, a mother in a poodle skirt holding a casserole, a daughter playing with a doll and a son playing with a BB gun. Sometimes a family is you, your five cats, your gay lover and his draft dodger son, your mute adopted mermaid daughter, her fish husband, and her best friend you share a beach-house with, all furiously signing in ASL to each other over sunday lunch and then piling into a van to the drive-in movie theatre and agreeing to duck if anyone walks past so they don’t notice two of the people in your car have gills.In which the Shape of Water squad all go on a road trip, move into a beach house in a hippy town together and live happily ever after. Shameless projecting of millenial fluff fantasies onto characters born during the Coolidge administration.





	We're Going Where the Sun Shines Brightly

There is a knock on Giles’ door. 

He doesn’t look up from his sketchbook at first; only two people ever visit him, Mr Arzoumanian for the rent and Zelda for tea a few times a week, and they both know to walk right in after an initial courtesy knock. But then he realises, he already paid the rent, and Zelda is visiting her sister in Richmond, which leaves…

_ It couldn’t be.  _

He tucks a pencil behind his ear, stands up and opens the door to find Elisa-  _ Elisa, Elisa, Elisa _ \- standing in the door of his apartment, 

How many times has he imagined her, the closest thing to a family, to a  _ daughter _ \- he’s ever really had, returning, dancing through the door on the edges of her toes, stopping in after work for tea and crashing onto his sofa, yes, even coming to him with outlandish demands to help care for her illegal sea-monster husband. He had missed her more than he had ever thought was possible, and it is all he can do to bring her breathlessly against his scratchy tweed vest in a hug so crushing he almost sweeps her off her feet. He remembers a moment later that she can’t speak back with him squeezing her arms like this, and he lets go, places his hands on her cheeks. 

She looks  _ good _ ; no, not good, glowing. Radiant.  _ The prodigal sun returned _ , he thinks to himself.

_ Careful of my gills,  _ she signs, with a smile.  _ They’re quite sharp.  _

Right.  _ Gills,  _ he remembers, and sure enough, there they are, where her scars used to be. And then it occurs to him-

“Elisa, is everything alright? Are you and-” he pauses and gestures the non-audible name with his hands-” _.._ still together? Are you happy? Why did you come back?”

_ Oh he’s doing wonderfully,  _ she signs.  _ We’re very, very happy. But I needed a break from the ocean, and I missed you.  _

They stare at each other.

_ I hate to be forward,  _ she signs _ , but is there ice cream? _

_ For you coming back, all of it,  _ he signs back, places an arm around her shoulder and walks her into the apartment. 

 

A few minutes later, both of them are seated on Giles’ old saggy sofa eating butterscotch and neapolitan ice cream and watching  _ The Lucy Show, _ just like old times, apart from the gills on Elisa’s neck. 

_ I got a little tired of raw fish,  _ she signs at him, wiping her lips with a napkin and smiling. 

“I did wonder about that,” he says as he gathers up the bowls to and spoons. “What is it the two of you do down there all day anyway?”

_ You know, fish stuff,  _ she signs.  _ And lots of sex.  _

“Fish stuff and sex, huh?” he says, dropping the bowls in the sink. “I don’t know why we bothered with the rat-race when clearly that was the answer all along.”

He comes back. Elisa is pointing at the door.

_ Who lives in my apartment now?  _ She signs.

“No one,” he says, falling back onto the sofa beside her. “Arzoumanian was so distraught by your- well, the official story was that Strickland shot you and you died. He insisted on keeping it as it is, as a shrine of sorts.”

“I water your plants and tidy sometimes. I could never stop thinking you might come back.”

He takes a deep breath.

“How do I explain this. Elisa. So, after you “died”, you got a bunch of letters through the mail to your apartment. I figured whoever was writing them had the right to know you were gone, so I opened them, and…”

_ Go on! _

“They were from an old friend from your School for the Deaf years. Everett.”

Her face lights up.  _ Everett! _ she signs. 

“He wanted to find out what had where you were, what had happened. But he also mentioned that he was... gay, and you had known about that. Well, I wrote back to him and gay men who know ASL are even harder to find than any other kind, and he wrote back, and one thing led to another, and…”

He sinks back into the sofa, puts his hand on Elisa’s knee.

“He lives in Canada, Vancouver Island, on the pacific coast. His son went there to escape conscription, and he came along, and he bought some land with some old run-down beach houses on it…” 

_ Deep breath. _

“I’m moving out there. This summer. To join him. Zelda left Brewster, and she’s coming with me too.”

Elisa’s face lights up and she happily signs:

_ Giles, I’m so happy for you! And for Zelda! _

He sighs. 

“Well… I was going to move, Elisa, but… I didn’t want to leave without knowing what happened to you. And now, I don’t want to never see you again, and it’s not like you and,” he pauses, “_.._ can swim the Panama Canal to come visit. I won’t leave Baltimore if it means never seeing you again.”

Her expression hurts to look at as she falls forward and hugs him, disentangles herself to sign:

_ I’m so sorry I left like I did, Giles. I would never have done that to you- _

“Hey. Hey! You don’t have to cry. Elisa. You don’t need to apologise, you were fucking shot in the chest!”

He digs a handkerchief out of his pocket and wipes the tears from her cheek as she signs. 

_ I didn’t realise at first how well I could still breathe on land. For a long time, I just assumed I couldn’t anymore. And I was scared of getting you implicated in something if I came back… But then we travelled down the coast, and i started trying going on land for longer and longer periods, and i decided to risk it. _

She sighs.

_ _.._ and i are very happy, but… I miss human things. Being a mermaid is nice, but I don’t want to do it ALL the time.  _

“That doesn’t surprise me in the least, Elisa. You’ve always been a worldly woman, and I don’t mean that in a shameful way. True love is nice, but it isn’t EVERYTHING.”

_ We’ve been trying to find a compromise, _ she signs. _ Someway where we could still live together, but I could be human some of the time. We tried having me live in an abandoned beach house, but it didn’t work out, and the locals got suspicious. Because I was unmarried, of all things! _

“Small-town people,” says Giles. “Lovely. Fortunately, Everett’s assured me that most of the population of Tofino is so permanently high, they’ll dismiss anything weird they see as them having smoked too many joints-”

They both have the same idea at the same moment. Elisa leaps up and her hands flash so quickly Giles can barely follow them.

_ Giles, we can come with you! _.._ and I could live in the pacific together, and I could come stay with you whenever I need to spend some human time. It would be perfect! You said there was a rundown beach house, right? _.._ could live in the ocean, and I could come and go between there and the house, go into town if i needed it. _

“Elisa, I’d do anything to take you two with me, but how am i supposed to get you to Vancouver Island?”

_ The same way you’d take anyone else!  _ she signs, and does a little spin on her toes. God, he missed her. 

“You’re honestly suggesting we drive a moving van all the way to the west coast of vancouver island with you, the cats, Zelda, and your fish-husband in a cooler?

_ Where’s the problem in that?  _ she signs.

“Well, uh…”

_ Literally no one will be trying to kill us this time,  _ she signs.  _ What is there even to be afraid of? We just need to stop at motels on lakes. Or with swimming pools. _

Good god, Giles thinks to himself.

_ _.._ is more adjusted now too. His ASL is fluent, and he even’ll eat human food sometimes.  _

_ Won’t even be that expensive, because I’ll stay with _.._ underwater. _

“Right, right.”

He takes a deep breath.

“Elisa … do you need a cooler as well? How long can you breathe on land for?”

_ No limit!  _ she signs, smiling. 

“Oh thank god,” he says. _“_ That would have been TOO weird for me, I think.”

With out of practice hands, he signs:

_ Anyway. Elisa. I’m glad you’re only… part fish.  _

She smiles. 

_ I’m sorry we have to make your life so complicated, Giles.  _

“No, it’s a good thing. The craziness keeps me young and i’ve missed it. It’s been so, well…”

_ What? _

“Quiet around here, without you.”

She runs back to the sofa, leans over, and kisses him on the cheek.

 

 

Several weeks later

 

“Alright everyone… seatbelts?”

Giles turns around to look at the back of the van, and not for the first time, he wonders how he ever ended up as the official driver for such a bizarre group of people and tries not to think about what he’ll say if they get stopped by the police.

The radio is blasting Cliff Richard’s “Summer Holiday” On the left in the back is Zelda, wearing a bright pink dress and sunhat, holding a giant picnic basket and passing out thermosfulls of cocktails and devilled eggs. On the right is Elisa, fanning herself with a roadmap with a wet beach-towel wrapped around her gills with the two cats sitting perched on her lap. In the middle of the two of them is the cooler with the Asset, who is wearing sunglasses and sipping a margarita. 

He takes a deep breath and signs  _ Ok so seeing as this is _.._’s first time seeing the USA outside of Baltimore, does anyone have any suggestions of quintessential American things we shouldn’t miss out on? _

_ Baseball game. _

_ National park. _

_ Motels. _

_ Hot dogs. _

_ I have tried them and they are disgusting. _

_ Fair enough. _

He shuffles the dial on the radio until he finds a channel blasting The Rolling Stones’  _ Route 66.  _ He turns up the volume, revs the engine and drives the van into the sunset. 

 

Later that night-  _ much _ later, it’s around 3:00 am to ensure they don’t run into any other guests at the motel- Giles and the Asset are resting by the pool on neighbouring deck chairs while Zelda and Elisa are tossing back and forth an inflatable beach ball in the pool. 

Giles turns his head. Even when he’s not saying anything, it’s remarkable how much the Asset’s body language has changed. Before he was always sort of shrunken, hesitant in human environments, and understandably so. Now, _._ is what Giles can only describe is  _ suave _ .  _ Relaxed.  _ It’s hot as hell frankly, and though he can’t imagine actually wanting to  _ be  _ with _.._ - apart from being Elisa’s, his skin is so goddamn cold! He doesn’t know how she gets past that! - it’s impossible not to appreciate him from an…  _ artistic  _ point of view. 

_ So, what do you think of America?  _ He signs, starting a conversation to break the awkwardness of the two of them being largely alone. 

_ It is strange, but I like it,  _ signs the Asset without changing position or removing his sunglasses.

It feels incredibly strange to have a proper conversation with _.._ , but then _.._ has had two years to hone his ASL. 

_ This is a big move for you, are you sure you’re ok with it? I’ve only really spoken to Elisa about it not to you- _

_ All I need is Elisa and the ocean.  _

The few times they’ve spoken,The Asset has always been blunt like that. Giles fairly assumes the conversation is finished, but he is wrong. The Asset sits up, faces him and fluently signs:

_ I never would have asked Elisa to give up her world entirely, I never wanted that for her. It just happened that way.  _

Both of them turn and look at the two women playing in the pool like kids.

_ After all, I know how it feels to lose your entire world. _

_ I guess you do. _

_ You know Elisa. She likes human food, pretty clothes, music… I am happy so long as I have her. But she needs more. So this is perfect, or hopefully will be.  _

_ We talked and talked about how to balance her world and mine, but we couldn’t think how to do it. Until now. _

_ Elisa has told me about your lover. About your… predicament. Humans are very strange I think. _

_ Well, that’s one way of putting it.  _

_ I do not understand. You will- punish someone for being attracted to someone with the same… parts. But you all wear clothes, so how can you tell what parts someone has anyway? _

Giles bursts out laughing. 

_ We have our ways of telling, but I guess it seems even dumber when put like that.  _

_ I hope you can find happiness like we two have. You deserve it. You are a good man, Giles. _

_ Thank you.  _

The Asset takes his sunglasses off and dives-  _ suavely _ \- into the motel pool embraces Elisa and lifts her happily into the air with his arms around her waist. 

Giles adjusts his glasses and fishes into his briefcase- which he brought out beside the deck-chair because he is that sort of man- digs out his last letter from Everett and rereads it.


End file.
